Docklands in the Snow

Over the years since I moved into the docklands area, I have listened to people denigrating the area. Too often I am told the area lacks a “soul”, that it is full of glass and steel towers with no character and that there is no heritage or “nooks and crannies” to explore.

I often dispute this, as while there are indeed steel and glass towers, there are also a wide range of smaller buildings, Victorian heritage and some of the early office blocks have a lot of nice detailing to them.

I am told that the area is empty at weekends, which it might look like if you travel through on the DLR – and don’t stop off to visit the two massive shopping centers in the heart of Canary Wharf, or the bars along the docksides – or the museum.

However, my main gripe with the armchair experts who decry living in docklands is the oft-cited claim that it lacks any character.

Accepting that almost anything looks nicer in the snow, below are some photos taken just a short walk from my flat or Canary Wharf – being the Mudchute Park and City Farm.

I can easily lose an hour wandering around the area with its “country-lanes” and fields, and I will always be grateful to the local residents who in the mid 1970s blocked a plan by the GLA to build a load of tower blocks on the land.

Certainly when I first moved here 12 years ago, the place was a ghost-town from Friday afternoon till Monday morning. Those days are long gone though – as you say, big shopping centres, also masses of bars & restaurants, we have the ice-rink Nov-Feb and summer concerts etc. The original ‘yuppie’ settlers have married and had kids so the place has a more ’rounded’ feel these days. As you say, there is also plenty of history and culture here too. I love the riverside walks (but not in this bitter cold wind!). Excellent photos, shame we don’t have more snow!

I used to spend many a weekend down the Docklands when I lived in Lewisham (& spent some time working in the area). There are lots of lovely old buildings and features such as pulleys dotted around amongst the new shiny shiny. Are the pictures from the City Farm at Mudchute?